SACRAMENTO — Jim Beall’s first stab at a beer tax was downed last year by opposition and ridicule. Undeterred, the South Bay assemblyman is back at it — and this time, his proposal for a hefty new fee on alcohol may have a better, ahem, shot at passage.

Beall’s Assembly Bill 1019 would slap a roughly 10 cents-a-drink levy on beer, wine and hard alcohol. And he’s structured it as a fee, which can pass the Legislature with a simple majority vote, rather than a tax, which takes a two-thirds supermajority to be enacted.

Also possibly aiding his cause this time around is the fact that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year proposed his own nickel-a-drink alcohol tax as part of his budget plan. The governor eventually dropped the tax and his office said Monday he’s not interested in revisiting it. But the fact that Schwarzenegger once was on board with the idea could bode well for Beall’s idea, particularly if the state budget outlook continues to deteriorate.

Beall’s plan would generate about $1.4 billion a year, with the money going toward alcohol- and drug-related programs. He and other supporters noted at a Capitol news conference Monday that California’s alcohol taxes haven’t been raised since 1991. Backers also said it’s time for the industry to bear more of the costs it imposes on society — including drunken driving accidents, alcoholism and other problems.

“Big alcohol pays zero, nada, bupkis, zilch to clean up the mess caused by their dangerous products,” said Bruce Livingston, executive director of the Marin Institute, which touts itself as an alcohol industry watchdog.

But Beall, D-San Jose, can expect stiff opposition from the beer, wine and spirits sectors, which are major employers in the state and boast significant political sway in the Legislature. The bill faces its first committee hearing in the Legislature today.

“We’re having a hard enough time eking out an existence in this economy, and he wants to make it even rougher,” Dan Gordon, cofounder of San Jose-based brewer Gordon Biersch. He compared Beall’s persistence on the issue to that of a religious zealot.

“No one wants it, but he keeps coming back,” Gordon said.

The Wine Institute, an industry trade group, said in a statement: “We find it astounding that there are California legislators who want to do great harm to one of California’s signature industries that provides over 300,000 jobs in the state.”

The alcohol fee would be imposed on wholesalers and would increase from the current 20 cents to $1.27 per gallon of beer (535 percent); from 20 cents to $2.76 per gallon of wine (1,280 percent); and from $3.30 to $11.83 per gallon of spirits (258 percent).

While Beall estimates the higher fee breaks down to about 10 cents a drink, Gordon and others contend there would be a multiplier effect down the retail chain and that it would end up costing much more for consumers at bars and supermarkets.

Although Beall was subjected to widespread scorn when he proposed a much higher beer tax last year — only to withdraw the proposal — the idea of raising alcohol taxes by some amount appears to be very popular. A January poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 85 percent of respondents backed the governor’s nickel-a-drink plan.

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